1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ringing-tone control device for a telephone set.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some portable telephone sets, ringing tones indicative of calls incoming are intermittently generated at different intervals according to a predetermined pattern. Some of known ringing tones have different frequencies.
An advanced portable telephone set has an IC for generating a signal representing a predetermined melody. A ringing tone is produced on the basis of the signal generated by the IC. Thus, the predetermined melody is used as a ringing tone.
It is known that a melody to be used as a ringing tone is made or changed in accordance with user's requirement.
In a known portable telephone set, a musical piece is converted into a corresponding audio signal via a microphone, and the audio signal is recorded in a memory. Upon the arrival of an incoming call, the audio signal is read out from the memory, and a ringing tone is generated on the basis of the audio signal. Thus, the musical piece is used as a ringing tone.
Japanese utility model 3030672 discloses a portable telephone set having a voice recorder into which words uttered by an arbitrary person and meaning a call incoming can be stored. In Japanese utility model 3030672, upon the arrival of an incoming call, the voice recorder is activated to reproduce the words. Thus, the words are used as a ringing tone.
Japanese published unexamined patent application 63-5268338 discloses a telephone set circuit provided with a voice recorder having a memory. A sound is converted into a corresponding audio signal via a handset, and the audio signal is stored into the memory within the voice recorder. Upon the arrival of an incoming call, the audio signal is read out from the memory, and a ringing tone is generated on the basis of the audio signal. Thus, the sound sampled via the handset is used as a ringing tone.
Japanese published unexamined patent application 1-112892 discloses a system including telephone sets and recorders. The recorders correspond to the telephone sets, respectively. The recorders store different signals representing arbitrary sounds, for example, the songs of birds and the sounds of waves. Upon the arrival of an incoming call, the sound-representing signal is read out from the recorder related to the incoming call, and the sound-representing signal is fed to the corresponding telephone set. In the telephone set, a ringing tone is generated on the basis of the sound-representing signal. Thus, the sound-representing signal stored in the recorder is used as a source of a ringing tone.